Why no highspeed rail in USA. You must understand this--U.S. culture.

I am not living in the U.S.A. So why do I have to watch this or to understand their culture?
Because we were all interconnected, whether you like it or not.

See this:

The Iraq war began on 19 March 2003, when the U.S., joined by the U.K. and several coalition allies, launched a "shock and awe" bombing campaign.

quoted from Iraq War - Wikipedia
"U.S, U.K and several coalition allies." Your country probably didn't join. But it will affects--think about last several years, people were feared because of terrorism. And you probably watched so many terrorist movies.

Fear comes from unknown. But if you know what it is, you will not have that.



It's Iraq invasion, not Iraq war which everyone was still saying.

You should read my previous post--Huawei ban. People were brainwashed by US meida but nobody realise it, unfortunately. @ May 30, 2019 because US medias were so powerful that people believed Iraq had WMD--Weapons of Mass Destruction.

Iraq invasion ended December 2011. Nobody found WMD. And then 8+ years later, some newspaper admitted that their government--Bush was mistaken...

So 16 years to find 'WMD' in Iraq but couldn't find it. Why? Simple answer is Iraq didn't have 'WMD'.



You should ask 'Why people believed it?'

Screenshot of google search with 'why iraq war 2003'

Americans were told by President Bush and his administration that the U.S. was going to war with Iraq because of the imminent threat of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and ties to terrorism.

Quoted from Why Did We Go To War? | Truth, War And Consquences | FRONTLINE | PBS @ October 9, 2003.


Why people believe such things because of 9/11 attack. And then Bush and his administration made campaign about 'War on Terror'.
And people believed it.





So many people believed Iraq had WMD. But meantime, many people question about it.

Screenshot of Opposition to invasion in Iraq War - Wikipeida

"between 3 January and 12 April 2003, 36 million people across the globe took part in almost 3,000 protests against war in Iraq"

"Anti-war protest in London, September 2002. .... up to 400,000 took part in the protest"

quoted from Iraq War - Wikipedia.


So many people opposed to war.
But see this:

Screenshot of Public opinion on the war in Iraq War - Wikipeida

In a March 2003 Gallup poll, the day after the invasion, 76% of Americans had approved of military action against Iraq. In a March 2003 YouGov poll, 54% of Britons supported the military action against Iraq.

quoted from Iraq War - Wikipedia.




But US medias were too powerful that people generally believed Iraq had WMDs.

And you can read this from above screenshot:

According to a January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproved of U.S. handling of the Iraq War. A September 2007 poll conducted by the BBC found that two-thirds of the world's population believed the U.S. should withdraw its forces from Iraq.

quoted from Iraq War - Wikipedia.

After 4 years later, things were quite changed, it looks, right?

But 'no'.

Why? Because so many people still believed Iraq had WMD.

On 20 January 2003, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin declared "we believe that military intervention would be the worst solution".

quoted from Iraq War - Wikipedia.

It's January 2003. Before the invasion started.
But you should realise what he was saying! "worst solution"
Here you can ask 'solution for what'?
You must ask again 'what is the problem'?

French Foreign Minister believed what Bush and his administration told them to believe "Iraq had WMD".


Was I wrong think that way?
I don't think so. Because I remember many things from what people were saying--those times.

See the poll result:
"January 2007 BBC World Service poll of more than 26,000 people in 25 countries, 73% of the global population disapproved of U.S. handling of the Iraq War."

See the last part--"handling of the Iraq War'.
So people still believe Iraq should handling by other country. People were asking other nation(other than U.S.) to handling the Iraq, right?

People still believed what Bush and his administration told them to believe "Iraq had WMD".




What this has to do with train!?


See this youtube video very carefully--Why The US Has No High-Speed Rail @ May 7, 2019

I will quote some of it from above youtube video:

If you look at the United States prior to 1945, we had a very extensive rail system everywhere. It all was working great except a number of companies in the auto and oil industries decided that for them to have a prosperous future they really needed to basically help phase out all the rail and get us all into cars.

1958 General Motors promotional film
1956 Dow Chemical pro-highway promotional film

We went from a rail-served country to a auto-dependent nation by the 1960s.
Not to mention the fact that in our political system we have very powerful oil lobbies, car manufacturing lobbies, aviation lobbies, all the entities that the high-speed rail would have to compete with.

Do you know what mega city or metropolitan city is?
Megacity is a very large city metropolitan area, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. And metropolitan city is like population of more than 1 million people.

Can you imagine mega city or metropolitan city without metro systems--subway system?
You probably will say that is not possible. Why?
People need to go work or go somewhere to do business but it will slow down because of heavy traffics

traffic jams are part of people's daily lives,

Traffic jams are just as stressful in Tokyo,

quoted from Traffic - Infrastructure - Megacities Traffic


How many highways government built--highway has limit for transport the people. But subway can transport so many people very effectively.


So if you understand this, why US don't want to build high-speed rail which is just extension or upgrade version of subway system?


Powerful US medias told people that train is terrible idea to transport the people. Car is. And aeroplane is. --see above youtube video.
And now US became "car-loving America".


Quoted from above youtube video:

and they see it as something those socialist European countries do but not something that should be done in, you know, car-loving America.

Government can build highway. But government can't build railway system.

Railway and highway. What's the different, I thought.
So I thought that highway must developed, builded and owned by private company in the United States of America.


But interestingly, I found this:

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation.

This funding mostly comes from the federal gasoline tax and mostly goes to state departments of transportation.

quoted from Federal Highway Administration - Wikipedia



Strange, ain't it?